The Menlo Park City School District board met with the public at Hillview Middle School on Tuesday to discuss ways to solve its projected budget crisis.

A crowd of approximately 100 people, many of them district teachers, convened inside Hillview’s performing arts center to hear about possible solutions to the budget deficit projected to be $5.3 million by the 2019-20 school year. Information presented came out of discussions with roughly 20 school and district adminstrators.

District officials announced the projected deficit after voters rejected two ballot measures in May that would have raised money for education through parcel taxes. Along with an expiring parcel tax, the district is expected to lose state funds in 2018 and pension costs are increasing.

“I’ve seen when things get cut before and when things get cut you don’t just snap your fingers and have them added back,” said board member Terry Thygesen. “There’s a long lag time. If we go out and cut our music program … or we cut our counseling program … or we stop doing the professional development we’ve been doing … it takes a number of years to get back to where you were. Having to proceed with doing these cuts is going to do real damage to a high-quality school district that is contributing a lot of value to this community.”

Tom Lyons, a science teacher at Hillview for the past 24 years, balked at the idea of increasing class sizes and urged the district to cut “bonus programs” such as middle school mini-courses and student iPads before it eliminates any teacher or teacher aide positions.

District leaders are eyeing another run at passing a parcel tax in the spring.

Options for the tax mentioned by district officials at Tuesday’s meeting:

• If the existing parcel tax, which expires in July, were renewed at the current rate of $207 per parcel, the deficit would be reduced by $1.8 million;
• If set at $300 per parcel, it would be reduced by $2.6 million;
• If set at $515 per parcel, the deficit would be eliminated.

Assistant Superintendent Erik Burmeister noted that pink slips for any layoffs would have to be issued by March 15.

“With the exception of a March parcel tax election, where we would still have to alert to the possibility of layoffs but would not actually have to give it to them … (it’s) very likely we would have to give pink slips no matter what,” Burmeister said.

Added Thygesen, “I think we’ll end up losing some of our best new teachers, which are the future of our district,” if pink slips are issued, whether the teachers are ultimately laid off or not.

Board President Jeff Child said the board needs to show residents — of which roughly 20 percent have children in its schools — how the education is worth the money.

Jarrod Coombes, who works for the district, urged renewing the parcel tax to the highest amount possible.

“When you start pink-slipping teachers, the culture changes dramatically and as much as the teachers are great at keeping kids away from that, they pick up on that,” Coombes said. “… It should be pretty clear to (district voters) that if the quality of this district falls, the value of their house falls as well. It may be a delayed reaction, but it will happen.”

The district will hold community input sessions at Hillview again at 9 a.m. on Monday and at 6 p.m. Tuesday.

Smuin Ballet has always been known for presenting eclectic and inventive programs. That’s definitely the case with its current “Dance Series 01,” which comes to Mountain View Center for the Arts Feb. 22-25. It’s a diverse combination of works. “I like to think of it as three independent short stories that are on one program,” said Smuin artistic director Celia...